Your Guide to Creating and Sharing Content in 2016 [Infographic]

In that moment when you post something to a social media channel, you wait for the “likes,” shares, favorites, and retweets to come. Sometimes, though, they never come.

How do you create content that makes your audience share it without fail? How and when do you share it on social media for maximum results?

Let’s take a look at five strategies that will help you create content that people want to share each and every time. Then, you can use my social media cheat sheet for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube to maximize the sharing of your great content.

1. Spend time on images and design

According to the Nielsen Norman Group, people don’t read web pages word for word. Instead, they pick and choose specific words and sentences as they scan the page. To accommodate this reading style, you need to use eye-catching images and organize your content in a way that grabs readers’ attention.

2. Create topical and timely content

A surefire way to garner shares is to jump on situations and breaking news as they develop. If you’re good about keeping your ear to the ground, you can take advantage of various situations and use them as an opportunity to stand out from the crowd.

A major breakthrough or change in your industry is a perfect example. If you weigh in with your thoughts and report on the news, you can have a timely post ready to share quickly. Combine that with the social media tactics detailed later in this article, and you have a recipe for an extremely shareable post.

3. Stuff your content with emotional appeal

Studies have confirmed that emotion is a major factor in decision-making at any level. Even something as simple as sharing a post on your Facebook timeline involves some level of emotion. People share content that makes them feel something. If it doesn’t do anything for them, odds are they won’t bother with it.

Of course, not all stories are created equal. You need to tell a story that connects to your readers and puts them into your perspective. Great stories involve what you expect – suspense, emotions, imagery, and metaphors – but your story needs to go beyond those characteristics.

Your story should offer something that your audience can relate to, and therefore create a means by which they can interact with your brand. If your readers feel something when they read your content, you can bet they’ll want to share it.

Join Over 200,000 of your Peers!

Thanks for posting! I was looking for tips like this for my content strategy. Those can be also applied to creating a good email marketing strategy as well as landing pages. I’ll surely use it with my next campaign in GetResponse.

JC Marelli

Great Chart, thanks for posting, in my case I´m struggling to get the hold on LinkedIn, may you have a sugestión for that channel???

Myrna Begnel

I found this from HubSpot a while back. Useful because it has several other social media channels, including LI and Google+.

I use Marketero to increase traffic to my website, besides it´s great to retain that traffic..

Cherie Frid

This infographic is an absolute thing of beauty! I am in <3

http://conexaodevalor.com.br Thiago Bernardo Santos

This article is amazing. Thank you for sharing.

http://www.instantessaywriting.com/ Alfonzo Nelson

Thanks for posting! it very useful information

http://evelynparham.com Evelyn

I’ve been trying to narrow down the best times for sharing on social media. This is a very helpful guide. Love your infographic!

http://www.truly.life Truly Life

all good pointers on how one should create & share content.. useful read..

lukwago James

Thank you so much Matt, this is a wonderful and very educative article, many bloggers around the world create content that is not so appealing or engaging and of which if it is posted on social media, you wont see reasonable shares or likes or tweets, but thank you so much, these tips will help us improve.
Lukwago James